Tiling News

The latest news for tilers and the tiling industry


September 24, 2009

Trades-direct

Filed under: Tile care, Tile Adhesive, Mapei Products — Riley's @ 7:27 am

Customer service letter to Trades-Direct.co.uk

Call us on 01782 566166 

I discovered Trades-Direct on the internet for tiling products and found them to be associated with PITT the tile training company. They were just down the road from me so I popped down to get a quote for all the adhesive, grout, sealers etc that I would need. I have done a bit of tiling before, but this was a big leap to natural stone and large format. The chaps down at PITT are exceptional when it comes to customer service. I am a DIYer, who has just popped in, I am not paying for a tiling course from them and I know little about the products that I require. They made me a cuppa, took me through to the tiling school and then onto the storeroom from where they supply their trade customers. I was armed with a stone tile and asked ‘how do I put that up?’ It ended up with 3 or 4 of their trainers all debating the best/ most suitable products for me and grout colours etc. They even demonstrated the various sealers to show me the available finishes. I left with my quote to supply all the required items and needless to say went back a day or two later to purchase having realised that their price was some £200 cheaper than a certain large chain tiling supplier. A few days later when I was struggling to get clean cuts they even lent me their radial arm tile-cutting machine for nothing (some £800 worth)! I cannot praise them enough for their exceptional service.

www.trades-direct.co.uk

September 23, 2009

Mapelastic Smart

Filed under: General, Wall and Floor Tiling, Tile Adhesive, Mapei Products — PITT Phil @ 1:00 pm

Two component, high flexibility cementitious mortar, for waterproofing concrete surfaces, balconies, terraces, basins and swimming pools. Can be applied by brush or with a roller.
Applications:
Mapelastic Smart is used to form highly flexible, waterproof and protective dressings on concrete structures, even those subject to cracking.
It may be applied on cementitious screeds, existing floors (clean and well bonded to the substrate) and renders to waterproof bathrooms, showers, balconies, terraces and swimming pools before laying ceramic and natural stone.
The mortar is applied by brush or with a roller on surfaces that must be perfectly clean and sound.
Apply thickness of at least 2 mm and embed the Fibreglass Mesh or Mapetex Sel.
Avoid the Mapelastic Smart membrane come into contact with water for 24 hours after laying.
Wait at least 5 days before laying ceramic tiles.
Technical data:
Pot life: 60 minutes.
Waiting time: 4-5 hours between each coat; 5 days before laying ceramic.
Colour: grey.
Application: by brush, roller or
spray-rendering machine.
Storage: part A: 12 months; part B: 24 months. Protect from frost.
Consumption
approx. 1.6 kg/m2 per mm of thickness when roller or brush applied;
approx. 2.2 kg/m2 per mm of thickness when spray applied.
Packaging
30 kg kits (part A 20 kg + part B 10 kg).

 Mapelastic Smart

Topcem Pronto

Filed under: General, Wall and Floor Tiling, Tile Adhesive, Mapei Products — PITT Phil @ 12:58 pm

Ready to use, pre-blended, normal-setting mortar with controlled shrinkage for fast-drying screeds (4 days).
Applications:
For forming bonded, unbonded and floating screeds on new or old slabs prior to installing moisture-sensitive flooring (wood, pvc, linoleum, carpet, rubber, etc.) or any other type of flooring in areas where fast-drying screeds are required to shorten completion times. Topcem Pronto is ready to use. Just mix with water. Topcem Pronto is the ideal solution where good quality graded aggregate is hard to find or for job sites such as those in city centres where the logistics involved in mixing conventional binders can be difficult. Topcem Pronto can be used in interiors and exteriors for screeds up to 60 mm thick. Bonded screeds (less than 40 mm thick) require the application beforehand of a bonding slurry of Topcem Pronto and Planicrete. Unbonded screeds (more than
40 mm thick) must be poured over polyethylene sheeting. Coverage
18-20 kg/m2 per cm of thickness, depending on tamping. Packaging

 

Mapei Topcem Pronto

Mapei Planicrete

Filed under: General, Wall and Floor Tiling, Tile Adhesive, Mapei Products — PITT Phil @ 12:54 pm

Synthetic-rubber latex additive for interior and exterior cement mixes, to improve mechanical and adhesive characteristics.
Applications:
Admixture to improve mechanical and adhesive characteristics of cement screeds, renders, thin levelling mortars, etc.
Additive for cement slurries for anchoring bonded screeds, filling holes or repairing damaged sections of screeds, concrete floors etc.
Additive for spatterdash to provide anchoring for renders.
Do not use pure Planicrete as a primer or slurry, always mix it with Portland cement, or, when required, with Mapecem or Topcem. Coverage
depending on mortar mix and thickness

Mapefonic system

Filed under: Wall and Floor Tiling, Tile Adhesive, Mapei Products — PITT Phil @ 12:51 pm

Minimal thickness sound control system designed to isolate impact noise when installed under ceramic tiles and stone materials.
Applications:
Acoustic insulation over:
• Concrete block and wood floors.
• Existing floors of ceramic tile, natural stone, parquet, etc. The Mapefonic System is a kit containing five products for the installation of 24 m2 of flooring
and acoustic insulation (divided into 4 units of 6 m2).
• Mapefonic Strip - Self-adhesive tape to be placed around the perimeter of the floor and around columns to prevent sound transmission. 1 box containing
4 rolls of tape, each 11 m long.
• Mapefonic Pad - Bitumen filled acoustic tiles (500 x 500 x 9.5 mm) with fibreglass reinforcing and a backing consisting of a composite cushion. When installed over the substrate the Mapefonic Pads form a sound deadening underlayment. 12 boxes containing 2 m2 each.
• Mapefonic Glue - Acrylic adhesive in water dispersion for installing Mapefonic Pad.
4 buckets of 5 kg.
N.B. Protect from frost.
• Mapefonic Mortar - Grey coloured fast setting cement based adhesive for installing ceramic tiles and moisture stable stone products: 4×25 kg bags.
• Mapefonic Grout - Grey coloured special fast setting grout based on hydraulic binders

September 18, 2009

Mapei Ultra Colour Plus Grout

Filed under: Wall and Floor Tiling, Tile Adhesive, Mapei Products — PITT Phil @ 12:36 pm

Ultra colour plus is a fsat setting and drying, high performance, anti-efforescence gourt, polymer modified, for joints from 2 - 20mm. Water-repellent with DropletEffect and antimold with BioBlock technology.

 Applications:

Interior and exterior floor and wall grouting of all types of ceramic tiles (double fired, single-fired, Klinker, porcelain tiles etc), terracotta, stone material (natural stone, marble granite, agglomerates, etc), glass and marble mosaics. Ensure complete uniformity of colour, does not produce surface efforescence, dries quickly and therefore floor and wall coverings are ready for use quickly.

 BioBlock

 BioBlock technology applied to this product blocks various types of mould from forming and proliferating on the surfaceof the grout in humid conditions. Also the use of special hydrophobic additives (DropEffects technology) gives grouting mortars high water-repellent properties, making them less prone to dirtinessand with excellent durability.

Ideal for grout extior facades, balconies, terraces, swimmin gpools, bathrooms and kitchens. Especially suitable for grouting floors of supermarkets, highway service stations, restaurants, airports and public service grounds.

 Technical data:

Pot life : 20 - 25 mins

waiting time before finishing: 15 - 30 mins

Set to light foot traffic: approx 3 hours

Ready for use: 24 hours ( 48 hours for swimming pools)

colours: 26

Storage: 12 months

 

 Mapei Ultra Colour Plus

Mapei Mapetex System

Filed under: Wall and Floor Tiling, Tile Adhesive, Mapei Products — PITT Phil @ 11:40 am

Completely removable installation system for ceramic tiles and stone materials. Can also be used as an anti-fracture and removable membrane.
Applications:
The Mapetex System consists of Mapetex, a non-woven fabric and Mapetex Strip, an adhesive strip.
Mapetex can be used with Mapetex Strip, as a removable base for the installation of floor and wall coverings on chipboard, wood, PVC, linoleum, ceramic and stone material substrates and on cement screeds and under-floor heating installations. It is particularly suitable for covering ceramic tile display panels because they can be rapidly replaced without damage.
Mapetex bonded with Keraquick + Latex Plus can also be used as an anti-fracture and removable membrane:
• for bonding floors on fresh cement screeds or in the presence of shrinkage cracks;
• for the installation of ceramic tiles and stone material. Packaging
Mapetex: rolls of 50 linear meters.
Mapetex Strip: rolls
of 5 - 10 - 25 linear meters.

 

Mapetex Info

September 12, 2009

Levelflex Self Levelling Compound

Filed under: Tile Adhesive, Underfloor heating — Riley's @ 11:00 am

 Levelling Compound can be applied up to 50mm in one application (trade & public welcome)

Another fantastic offer from the adhesive & grout leaders

www.trades-direct.co.uk

supply anywhere next day delivery for only £7.95 however large your order (2 to 3 working days on large orders)

Or call us today on 01782 566166

 

FIBRE REINFORCED FLEXIBLE SELF LEVELLING FLOOR COMPOUND 

RRP £32.00 available to trade & public at only £16.00 + vat

SPECIFICATION CATEGORY: Conforms to BS 8203 Clause 18.3.

DESCRIPTION:

A free flowing, fast setting, fibre reinforced, protein free, shrinkage compensated cement based formulation for self levelling rough and uneven floors and screeds in preparation to laying a floor covering.

ADVANTAGES:

Single part, no additives required
Light foot traffic after 3 hours
Can apply from featheredge to 50mm in one application
Flexible
Ideal for under floor heating and timber substrates
Can apply ceramic, porcelain and natural stone tiles after 4 to 5 hours
High durability
Pourable self levelling compound
Protein free ideal for use in hygienic areas
Can take light, direct vehicular traffic
Shrinkage compensated

USES:
For smoothing screeds and a variety of floor surfaces. The high polymer and fibre formulation makes LEVELFLEX the ideal choice for direct foot traffic, light vehicle traffic and can be applied to concrete, asphalt, timber, plywood, chipwood, underfloor heating, old tiles, terrazzo and natural stone. Due to the strength of formulation, LEVELFLEX can be applied to a depth of 50mm in one application. LEVELFLEX is the perfect choice when preparing a substrate to lay wooden block, laminate, ceramic tiles, natural stone, vinyl, parquet, cork, carpet or painting as the final treatment.

September 1, 2009

Mapei Latex Plan Trade (Bag & Bottle)

Filed under: Tile Adhesive, Underfloor heating — Riley's @ 11:09 pm

See special offers for this unbeatable offer (limited time while stocks last) visit Trades Direct now.

Trade & Public welcome call us 01782 566166

 

Two-component, trade levelling and smoothing compound, protein-free with low odour and high compressive strength.
For levelling differences in thickness from 1-10mm to receive all types of floor coverings. Suitable for underfloor heating. Suitable for use under MAPEPROOF ESM surface membrane.
Coverage: 6m2 at 3mm thickness.
Packaging: Part A: 25 kg Powder, Part B: 5 kg Liquid.    

**BAG & BOTTLE**

Mapei Latex Plan Trade (Bag & Bottle)
Price : £17.95
Plus VAT 
Delivery £7.95 order size 1 bag to one pallet same price

August 15, 2009

Tile Forums

Filed under: Tile care, Wall and Floor Tiling, Tile Adhesive — Riley's @ 12:28 pm

Tile Forums is one of the best tools around to help the professional & DIYer alike.

Most of us today use the internet for the ease of finding information, here at Tile Forums members and moderator’s aims are to have a jam packed forum covering everyday topics.

People’s tastes and trends change often, however information stored on forums can be kept indefinitely something we do here at Tile Forums, if a topic appears unpopular at the start it will be discarded where 99% of information is held for your free use in future years.

The only way to successfully use a forum is to join, a simple form taking 1 minute to fill out is all that’s required at Tile Forums, so what are you waiting for come along and join the experts, DIYers and general public looking to find out more about tile fixing, tile & stone maintenance, sealers, grout colouring, and much much more.

Suitable for Builders, Plasterers, Tilers, Diy, Joiners, Plumbers in fact just about anyone.

It’s FREE to join

You can log on anytime 24/7

There are no costs

Just enjoy

The Tile Forums Team

www.tileforums.comLet Tile Forums help you creat the perfect bathroom

Trades Direct & Mapei

Filed under: Tile Adhesive — Riley's @ 10:37 am

Trades Direct now stock all Mapei building & Tiling products. The range of some 2,000 products are available through our showroom, trade counter or on-line shop.

We pride ourselves on next day delivery for all orders under 180kg larger orders 2 to 3 working days.

Trade & Public welcome

Much cheaper than your local stockist 

Telephone orders & FREE technical help line before you buy from 8-00 am to 9-00 pm 7 days call 01782 566166

Order on line by clicking the link below

www.trades-direct.co.uk

Trades Direct helping you creat the perfect job

 

February 10, 2009

Fit an LED light in your tiles

Filed under: Tiling tools, Wall and Floor Tiling, Tile Adhesive — Riley's @ 8:43 pm
Trades Direct have now completed negotations in becoming a distributors of in tile LED lighting systems.Purchase from http://www.trades-direct.co.uk   

Tile shops must call us on 01782 566166 where we can discuss supply.

Product Information:

Easy to install, built-in walk-over lighting innovation based on LED technology. When the fixtures are installed, the look like eyes. Floorleds are one of the first low profile, built-in, permanently installed, recessed residential/commercial LED floor lighting systems of its kind.

Floorleds are perfect for commercial applications such as restaurants, retail establishments, entertainment facilities, sport facilities, theatres, casinos or hotels. Floorleds function wonderfully as guide, accent or night-lights in stairways, lobbies, offices, conference rooms, walkways, elevators or at entrances or exits of buildings. The solid leds construction is designed to withstand heavy use; walking or even driving over the lights is not a problem.

Features & Benefits

Extreme long lifespan up to 100,000 hours MTBF
Walk-over construction up to 285kg
Only 6,5mm recess depth
Available in modern finishing’s
Available in different colours: white, blue, amber and green

Possible Applications

Hardwood Flooring
Laminate
Carpet
Ceramic
Tiles
Natural Stone
Quartz Flooring and every other material > 6,5 mm!

** NEEDS BUILT IN DRIVER **

October 22, 2008

Trades people

Please note that place 4 trades has now operated as a trade advertising site for well over 3 years.  

If you would like to advertise your business, email us sales@place4.co.uk the place to find your skilled trade’s people and trade suppliers.

Less than £1 per week will place your business in front of thousands of customers every week, in any one county.

We are committed to placing you at the forefront of quality customers.

Be found today and every day at place 4 Find trades people and trade suppliers here

Find at place 4

Trade training courses
Tilers
Plumbers
plasterers
All trades
Trade suppliers
Kitchen suppliers
Bathroom suppliers
Trade forums
Decorators
Handymen
Restoration specialists
And so on

Find all your trade requirements at place 4

Call us on 01782 566166

Attached Image
Attached Image

October 16, 2008

Mapei Tiling Adhesive

Filed under: Tile Adhesive — Riley's @ 8:22 pm

Question sent in to Riley’s Tiling Tips

Question

I am interested in tiling but am not a not a professional tiler. I have seen the adhesives used and most include a “polymer”. What is a polymer and what does it do?

Riley’s Answer

Hi hope you are well and thank you for asking your question here at Riley’s Tiling Tips.        

A polymer is a long, repeating organic chain, formed through the linkage of
many identical smaller molecules called monomers.

The term polymer covers a large, diverse group of molecules, including
substances from proteins to high-strength kevlar fibres. A key feature that
distinguishes polymers from other large molecules is the repetition of units
of atoms (monomers) in their chains. This occurs during polymerization, in
which many identical monomer molecules link to each other. For example, the
formation of polyethene involves thousands of ethene molecules bonding
together to form a chain of repeating -CH2- units.

Because polymers are distinguished by their constituent monomers, polymer
chains within a substance are often not of equal length. This is unlike
other molecules in which every atom is acounted for, each molecule having a
set molecular mass. Differing chain lengths occur because polymer chains
terminate during polymerization after random intervals of chain lengthening
(propagation).

Proteins are polymers of amino acids. From a dozen to some hundred of the
(about) 20 different monomers form the chain, the sequence of monomers
determining the shape and activity of the final protein. But there are
active regions, surrounded by, as it believed now (Aug 2003), structural
regions, whose sole role is to expose the active region(s) (there may be
more than one on a given protein). So the absolute sequence of amino acids
is not important, as long as the active regions are expressed (being
accessible from the outside) properly. Also, whereas the formation of
polyethylene occurs spontaneously given the right conditions, the
manufacture of biopolymers such as proteins and nucleic acids requires the
help of catalysts (substances that facilitate or accelerate reactions.)
Since the 1950s, catalysts have also revolutionised the development of
synthetic polymers. By allowing more careful control over polymerization
reactions, polymers with new properties, such as the ability to emit
coloured light, have been manufactured.

Therefore for a tiling adhesive or grout the polymer will surround the cement ball in plastic reducing water permeability, allowing the rigid cement to flex and also increasing the overall adhesion when bonding ceramics to none porous surfaces etc so polymer is such an important player in many industries but very much in need where ceramics are involved.
www.trades-direct.co.uk

Tiling Walls, Background Preparation

Filed under: Tiling courses, Wall and Floor Tiling, Tile Adhesive — Riley's @ 4:23 pm

Tiling Walls

Background Preparation

Walls to be tiled

After many years running tiling training courses “well 22 years as a matter of fact” I have heard many delegates say I am attending a plastering course soon to help out with background preparation when I’m tiling.

This is not a necessary skill for a tile fixer, there is nothing wrong with multi-skilled trade’s people but as I said it is not an “absolute” to your skill base.

The reason plastering is no great benefit to a practising tile fixer is the overall weakness of plaster finishes and slow dry/cure times.

If the wall you are about to tile is both un-even with lumps, bumps and hollows the fastest route would be to make good using a rapid setting tile adhesive, thus allowing tiling to proceed in just a few hours rather than the normal four week wait for plaster to cure and be sufficiently strong enough to carry the weight of the tiles.

Bearing in mind that fully cured plaster will only support 20 kg per square metre in weight where plasterboard will carry 32 kg, however modern building techniques still adopt the dry lining (dot & dab) method using plasterboard then skim finishing the boards with plaster before tiling takes place.

Plaster finish and weight of tiles was never such an issue in this country when your British tile shops stocked 150 mm x 150 mm tiles in the main,  these tiles would only weigh some 15 kg including the weight of adhesive & grout. These days wall & floor tiles are leaving tile shop doors with only four tiles to the box weighing in at 30 kg before we even get them in the car boot “holding on to your aching back” therefore we really do need look hard at how we prepare our bathroom walls before hanging a potential disaster over the family’s naked body soaking in the bath.

Back to the preparation if walls are un-even and assuming the plaster background is a finish plaster and NOT bonding plaster. We can first prime the plaster using a product with properties like BALs (APD prime) but never PVA, “why you may ask” PVA will break down in water and as the tiling products are all water based we do not want a built in disaster.

Once primed and dry after 30 minutes (approx) we can take a suitable length straight edge “ideally an aluminium one” and place it against the wall to be prepared in all directions vertically, horizontally and diagonally you will start to see lumps and hollows that are better corrected at the preparation stage rather than using lashings of adhesive during the tiling project.

I always think that the removal of bumps makes sense rather than building out the rest of the wall to meet the point of the bumps in the wall.

If you choose to remove these humps and bumps by taking your hammer and chisel to the wall think what could be the outcome, the finish plaster and the newly applied primer will be chopped away leaving a dusty un-primed plaster backing maybe even the bonding plaster could present itself to you, and as mentioned earlier this is not a good background for tiles.

That said you may opt for the building out process, bringing the hollows level with the tip of the humps and bumps, if this is the case start by holding the straight edge in all directions and marking the low areas using a pencil draw circles to show where the hollows are, once you have identified these areas it’s now time to mix a small quantity of rapid setting tile adhesive and apply with a flat trowel inside the circles you marked and fill the area out by the depth required.

Once all areas have been filled sufficiently take the straight edge and moving it back and forth across the filled areas you may take some of the filling off if you have applied more than was necessary, don’t worry if this is the case as even a professional would apply more, then allow the straight edge guide the flatness your looking for.

You may need to follow this procedure two or three times to give you a flat background to receive your tiles.

Once you feel happy with your efforts allow the rapid set adhesive to dry (normally two to three hours) now the wall is ready for tiling, trowel adhesive either a dispersion adhesive (ready mixed) or continue using a cement based as the wall was protected with primer allowing you to use the adhesive of your choice without risk of ettringite formation in other words the growth of crystals this occurs when un-primed plaster and cement based adhesive meet.

If the tiles to be fixed are large tiles say 300mm x 300mm or greater these fall in to the category of large format tiles and will require a thick bed of adhesive this means that the adhesive choice must only be a cement based adhesive, cement based adhesive can dry and cure even at bed depths of 12 mm in isolated areas where your ready mixed bucket adhesives are restricted to a maximum bad depth of 3 mm thus not allowing us this option.

If Riley’s tiling tips service can help your tiling project further please feel free in asking your questions by email paul@professional-itt.com.

The products mentioned in this edition of Riley’s tiling tips are available by clicking the web site below.

www.trades-direct.co.uk

Trades direct offers you a helpline before you buy your tiling products, call between 8-00 am and 9-00 pm 7 days for professional help on 01782 566166     

Visit Tiling News again soon for more of Riley’s Tiling Tips.

Next Page »